In today’s society, so many of us adults are overwhelmed by the ills of our capitalist society; plagued by inflation, recession, unemployment and the list is infinite. Unfortunately, we fail to acknowledge the impact that this has on our children. Western civilization has created a culture of material attainment that breeds entitlement, enslavement, discrimination, corruption, separatism social disservice and intolerance. This accompanied with the lack of social networks, institutional and familial supports to appropriately provide for the endeavors of the masses is enough to create situations of unpreparedness in the areas of employment and education as well as desperation in the realm of human/social service needs. As such, our children are often inadequate in their abilities to support themselves, and are often intimidated in professional and social settings.

Untraditional ambition and diverse ways of living, learning and growing are established but not always supported by our traditional, out-dated and convoluted systems. Accountability is sporadic and disjointed, compromising forward movement and completion and the expectations for our youth remain unequally established and supported. Unfortunately, society’s crippling beliefs and attitudes deplete creativity, innovation, autonomy, individualism and self-pride. Our children and youth are increasingly aware that being different implies standing out, alone and away. Mainstream and mediocrity has become more acceptable than not via standards, policies and provisions that seek to enforce and reinforce institutionalized and social barriers of acceptance and/or rejection.

It’s not a matter of quoting statistics from empirical science studies, or police reports or psychological studies or fancy terminology that has repeated itself under another name and founder. It’s a matter of our educational status, the street corners, the teen clubs, the incidents of violence and death, the imposingly increased age of youth as adult offenders, the increase in child neglect and abuse cases, the reduction and removal of child welfare and family oriented programs, the broken homes, the younger ages of domestic violence and increase in children and youth with HIV/AIDS. That’s proof enough! So, I hope we can revert back to a more fundamental question as we move forward in life… “What about our children”? I believe that if this question is collectively engrained in our daily living, planning, and preparation; we can surely begin to change many of our countries community and institutional deficits. As adults, we must abandon selfishness and prepare our children for a future not plagued with ills that we have created, but a future of grace, tolerance and compassion. It’s just my thoughts… K. Renee’